Slammed

priority anymore. I'm putting my mother first, Kel second and life third.
     
    Finally. He no longer has a hold on me.
     
    ***
     
    "Eddie, will you go grab me a chocolate milk, Babe? I forgot to get one." Gavin is giving Eddie puppy dog eyes. Eddie rolls her eyes and gets up. As soon as she leaves the table, he turns toward us and starts whispering.
     
    "Tomorrow night. Getty’s. Six o'clock. Bring a pink balloon. And we're going to the slam afterward."
     
    "Gavin, are you crazy? That's not funny, she'll be pissed," I whisper.
     
    "Just trust me."
     
    She's back at the table with the chocolate milk.
     
    "Here, Babe. You owe me fifty-cents."
     
    "I owe you my heart," Gavin says as she hands him the milk.
     
    She slaps him lightly across the head. "Oh, grow a pair! You're such a sap," she says, right before she kisses his cheek.
     
    ***
     
    I reluctantly walk into Getty’s pizza with a pink balloon in my hand. Gavin and Nick are gathered in the back of the room at a booth. He motions for me to join them. There are so many pink balloons. She's going to be pissed.
     
    Gavin grabs my balloon and writes something on it with a big marker. "Here," Gavin says as he hands me the fistful of balloons. "Take all these and go to the back by the bathrooms. I'll come get you when it's time, she'll be here soon."
     
    He shoves me toward the bathroom before I have a chance to object. I stand in a corner in the hallway between the men's room and the janitors’ closet. I look up at all the balloons, and that's when I notice there are names written on each one of them.
     
    Moments later, an older gentleman walks down the hall toward me.
     
    "Are you Layken?" he asks.
     
    "Yes," I reply.
     
    "I'm Joel, Eddie’s foster dad."
     
    "Oh, hey."
     
    "Gavin wants you out front, I'll take the balloons now. Eddie's out there. She thinks I went to the bathroom so don't say anything about the balloons."
     
    "Uh, okay." I hand him the balloons and walk back to the table.
     
    "Layken! You came! Guys this is so sweet," Eddie says. She starts to sit at the booth when Gavin pulls her back up.
     
    "We're not eating yet. We need to go outside."
     
    "Outside? But it's cold out there."
     
    "Come on," he says as he pulls her toward the door.
     
    We all follow Gavin outside and stand next to Eddie. I look at Nick but he shrugs, implying he doesn't know what's going on, either. Gavin pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and stands in front of Eddie.
     
    "I didn't write this letter, Sweetie. But I was told to read it."
     
    Eddie looks at us and smiles, trying to gain hints from our expressions. We can't give her any, because we don't even know.
     
    It was July 4 th when you came to me. Independence Day. You were fourteen. You burst in the door and went straight to the refrigerator, telling me you needed a sprite. I didn't have any sprite. You told me it was okay and you grabbed a Dr. Pepper instead. You freaked me out. I told the caseworker there was no way I could keep you. I'd never fostered a teenager before. She told me she would find you somewhere to go the next day, that she just needed me to keep you for the night.
     
    I was so nervous. I didn't know what to say to a fourteen year old girl. I didn't know what kinds of things they liked, what shows they watched. I was clueless. But you made it so easy. You were so worried about making me feel comfortable.
     
    Later that night when it was dark outside-we heard fireworks. You grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch and drug me outside. We laid on the grass in the front yard and we watched the sky. You didn't shut up. You told me all about the family you just came from, the family before that, and the family before that. The whole time you were talking, I was listening. Listening to this little girl, so full of life. So full and enthralled with a life that tried so hard to knock her down.
     
    Eddie gasps when she sees Joel in the window of the restaurant with dozens of pink balloons. He walks outside and stands beside Gavin. Gavin continues reading the letter.
     
    I've never been able to give you much. Other than eventually teaching you how to park, I've never even taught you very much. But you've taught me more than you will ever know. And on this very special birthday, your eighteenth birthday-you no longer belong to the state of Michigan. And as of right now, you legally no longer belong to me. You no longer belong to any of the following people that once held